Your wallet is full of them. You probably
have one for your go-to coffee shop and
one for your local grocery store. Loyalty
and reward cards have long been a way
to keep customers coming back for more,
and golf is no different. Golfers rack up
points for play and purchase in exchange
for rewards, including free rounds and
equipment.

“The scope of having regional andnational cards creates an intangible emo-tional appeal to the golfer thinking theyhave a greater opportunity to derivevalue,” said J.J. Keegan, golf strategist andauthor of “The Business of Golf.”Keegan said one of the best loyalty cardprograms is run by Play Golf Calgary,which promotes inter-course play betweenits three existing courses and promotestwo courses under construction through aprogram called “Life is Better With Golf.”Golfers are sent 20 summer challenges tocomplete to earn points toward free golf.

“They are masterful marketers,” Keegan
said.

But when it comes to a large management company, such as Troon, the
strength of a rewards program lies in its
worldwide network of courses.

To make business-to-consumer programs work for both parties, it all comes
back to capturing data.

“Data is king,” said Ryan Walls, seniorvice president of operations, sales andmarketing at Troon. “The more we cancommunicate and engage with a customer,the more successful our golf courses aregoing to be.”Through a sophisticated point-of-salesoftware system, golfer information,including where they play and where theyspend money, can make communicationmore effective.But communication has its limits.Inundating customers with irrelevantemails is the biggest pitfall of loyalty pro-grams, regardless of industry, said Keegan,who named bad emails as the top reasonwhy loyalty programs fail.“The number of emails for ‘ladies night’that I receive are a clear indication thata course has not segmented their data,”Keegan said. “And they may argue, ‘Ohit’s good for me to know so I can tell mywife about it.’ I view it more as spam thanattentive marketing.”Walls is well aware of this possibil-ity and uses customer feedback to avoidspamming golfers.“We don’t want to hound our custom-ers,” Walls said. “We want to engage withthem in the areas they’re interested in.”Data tracking and surveys allow mar-keters to segment their audiences andsend the right emails to the right people.So if you’re a male golfer, don’t expect tobe getting any emails about ladies night —unless you asked for them.

But there is something you should know
about the Troon rewards “card.” There is
no actual card — not anymore. After 10
years, it ditched the plastic in 2013 for a
streamlined digital experience directly
tied into the data collection system.
Golfers at daily-fee and resort courses use
their email, handicap number or member

As the use of loyalty cards grows, so do the rewards for course owners